Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v3.c40.101

v3.c40.101

Dhāt and Umrasūmra.—We now take leave of Rajputana, as it is, for the desert depending upon Sind, or that space between the frontier of Rajputana to the valley [309] of the Indus, on the west, and from Daudputra north, to Baliari on the Rann.¹ This space measures about two hundred and twenty miles of longitude, and its greatest breadth is eighty; it is one entire *thal*, having but few villages, though there are many hamlets of shepherds sprinkled over it, too ephemeral to have a place in the map. A few of these *puras* and *vas*, as they are termed, where the springs are perennial, have a name assigned to them, but to multiply them would only mislead, as they exist no longer than the vegetation. The whole of this tract may be characterized as essentially desert, having spaces of fifty miles without a drop of water, and without great precaution, impassable. The sandhills rise into little mountains, and the wells are so deep, that with a large kafila, many might die before the thirst of all could be slaked. The enumeration of a few of these will put the reader in possession of one of the difficulties of a journey through Maru; they range from eleven to seventy-five pursa, or seventy to five hundred feet in depth. One at Jaisinghdesar, fifty pursa; Dhot-ki-basti, sixty; Girab, sixty; Hamirdeora, seventy; Jinjiniali, seventy-five; Chailak, seventy-five to eighty.